Partners in Success

The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges fosters the effective participation by community college faculty in all statewide and local academic and professional matters; develops, promotes, and acts upon policies responding to statewide concerns; and serves as the official voice of the faculty of California Community Colleges in academic and professional matters. The Academic Senate strengthens and supports the local senates of all California community colleges.

The Bay Area Workforce Funding Collaborative (BAWFC) is a public/private partnership of 14 philanthropic foundations and the State of California Employment Development Department (EDD) designed to increase the economic security of low-income Bay Area residents while meeting the workforce needs of key industry sectors in the region. The BAWFC invests in workforce training efforts that promote the development and sustainability of career ladder initiatives that lead from entry level positions to progressively more skilled occupations in the health care and life sciences sectors. In addition, the BAWFC supports systems reform efforts aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of workforce development practice in the Bay Area region, and ensuring that state and local workforce, education, and economic development policies are responsive to the needs of local communities and critical industries. To date, the BAWFC has conducted two grant cycles distributing $6.5 million to 20 Bay Area workforce development projects.

Strengthening Pre-collegiate Education in Community Colleges (SPECC) is a partnership of the Hewlett Foundation and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. A multi-site action-research project, SPECC focuses on teaching and learning in pre-collegiate mathematics and English language arts courses at 11 California community colleges. These courses, which cover material often termed “developmental” or “basic,” serve as prerequisites to transfer-level academic courses. On each campus, faculty members are exploring different approaches to classroom instruction, academic support, and faculty development. Their inquiry into the effects of these approaches engages a wide range of data, including examples of student work, classroom observations, and quantitative campus data. The ultimate goal of their investigations, and of SPECC as a whole, is to support student learning and success through a culture of inquiry and evidence.

The Career Ladders Project for the California Community Colleges works to strengthen the role of community colleges in providing educational and career advancement opportunities for Californians. Through research, policy initiatives, strategic and technical assistance to colleges and their workforce development partners, the Career Ladders Project works to foster career ladders in California.

The Career Ladders Project provides support to a number of initiatives, including the Gateway Project and the system’s Career Advancement Academies (CAAs), regional demonstration projects designed to establish pipelines for underprepared and underemployed young adults. Focused on improving reading, writing, and math skills in the context of high wage career pathways, these projects are creating bridges to college and career for underserved populations.

The Community College Research Center (CCRC), part of Teachers College, Columbia University, is the leading independent authority on the nation’s more than 1,200 two-year colleges. Since our inception, CCRC’s consortium of researchers has strategically assessed the problems and performances of community colleges. Our mission is to conduct research on the major issues affecting community colleges in the United States and to contribute to the development of practice and policy that expands access to higher education and ensures success for all students. CCRC’s extensive body of research provides a strong foundation on which to build new policies and initiatives to improve the outcomes of these institutions so integral to the higher education system, employment landscape, and national economy.